Posts from ‘December, 2009’

Happy New Year!

Dec 31st, 2009
by soph.
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What do you say on the brink of a new decade? To say nothing seems a little remiss, somehow, yet to say anything feels inadequate. For the first time in three years, hubby and I will not be ringing in the New Year at home. I usually take some time to sort out my thoughts in the final hours of New Year’s Eve but this year, I got a headstart. So have a wonderful New Year, everybody, and be safe. Here’s to 2010. A new year, a new decade. May it also be the beginning of new hopes and dreams.

Update 01/01/2010: Of all the places I thought we would be when the clock struck twelve, being struck in traffic because the police had set up a roadblock definitely wasn’t one of them. But that’s where we were. We eventually made it to G’s, where we stayed past 4.30am. The last time I stayed up so late was years and years ago but what an apt way to start off 2010 – with a little change. It was good. I’ll remember this.

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Posted in: Daily Events.

Spotted: Jay Chou and Lin Chi Ling

Dec 27th, 2009
by soph.
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When it comes to Asian singers, there aren’t a whole lot that I really like and admire. But Jay Chou is one of them. I think he is a brilliant songwriter and he was open, chatty, funny and a little quirky throughout my (group) interview with him so it was great. Lin Chi Ling was also a pleasant surprise. It’s easy to dismiss her as little more than just a pretty face but as it turned out, there is quite a bit of substance under that sweet, gentle facade. The two of them were recently in town with director Kevin Chu for the local premiere of their film The Treasure Hunter.

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Posted in: Celebrities, Movies Music TV.

Christmas without Christmas cheer isn’t such a bad thing after all

Dec 24th, 2009
by soph.
2 comments

It’s Christmas Eve and hubby and I are keeping it quiet this year. Or rather, I am. As I type, he is engaged in fervent online warfare with his brother, having recently – finally – discovered the joys of X-Box Live. Safe for the sounds of gunfighting and valiant fighters dying and er, respawning(?), it is actually really peaceful.

For several days now, I’ve been thinking about a post to mark Christmas this year. But despite the exchanging of presents during my office’s annual Secret Santa (I got a lovely jewellery box I’m sure exceeded the pre-set budget, thank you Secret Santa!), the dressing up (everyone wore red, white and/or green yesterday), and the Christmas decorations and carols that accompany the holiday season, I’m still not quite feeling that Christmas cheer. The mood comes and goes, but for the most part, it stays away.

Then today, as I was driving home from work, I realised that it doesn’t matter. Because not feeling the Christmas cheer doesn’t mean I’m not celebrating Christmas. I am, but unlike last year, we’re keeping it quiet this year, and I might be the better for it. I’m in the mood for quiet, for peace, for writing and reading and contemplating and, not least, relaxing and doing nothing. And that’s as much what Christmas should be about as it is about everything else. Maybe even more.

I didn’t plan on taking much time off work at first, but seeing as hubby has been given the rest of the year off, I decided at the last minute to do the same. I joke that it’s going to be my last chance at a long, peaceful break, just me and hubby, for the next 20 years. Christmas will never be the same again. Just thinking about the week ahead makes me wonderfully happy so I know I made the right decision. For someone who isn’t really feeling the Christmas cheer, maybe I’m not doing so bad after all.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Posted in: Daily Events.

Videos: Five Strangers do ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Fever’

Dec 22nd, 2009
by soph.
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As promised, my videos of Five Strangers performing at Rama V, KL. Unfortunately the quality of these recordings, which were taken with my trusty super-old Sony Cybershot, leave much to be desired but I assure you the band sounded much better live. I hear this may have been their first and last gig together, though.

For a touch of Christmas cheer, ‘Winter Wonderland’.

The band gets funky for ‘Fever’.

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Posted in: Movies Music TV.

Pregnancy perk: I’ve really learned to take care of myself

Dec 21st, 2009
by soph.
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One of the best “side effects” from being pregnant is that I’ve really learned to listen to my body and take care of myself. It might sound terribly obvious to some but I never used to listen to my body the way I do now. It happened quite by accident.

During my first trimester, while I was extremely blessed not to have suffered from morning sickness, I did experience mild bouts of nausea almost every day. So I began paying attention to how I was feeling all the time, in an effort to catch (and hopefully, ward off) upcoming episodes. I made sure I ate regularly because hunger seemed to make things worse, and I began eating breakfast every morning because if I didn’t, I would probably have thrown up.

I tried to eat balanced meals and cut out the usual no-nos of caffeine, alcohol and raw meats like medium-rare steaks and sashimi, although I maintained my love of chocolate and ice cream. I’d read that constipation is a problem for many pregnant women so I was extra careful to eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and I tried (but didn’t always succeed) to drink more water. I would consciously ask myself what I really felt like eating because if I didn’t, I wasn’t going to be able to stomach what I’d ordered. And as the weeks went by, the habits stuck.

Then one day, I attended an event at Fit For 2, which specialises in fitness for pregnant women and new mothers, where I got talking with founder Debbra Lee. She asked me how often I exercised and I, knowing I wasn’t exactly fitness personified but thinking I was still doing okay, answered, “Oh about once a week.”

“Once a week?!” she said. “You should be exercising at least three to four times a week!” Now I knew the importance of staying fit during pregnancy, not just for weight reasons but also because fitter women generally cope better with labour, but I hadn’t realised just how far off the mark I was.

So began phase two of taking care of myself – regular exercise. A lot of people give me raised eyebrows when I mention that I’m going to the gym, and I don’t know what it is that they imagine I do there, but really all I have enough discipline for is 30 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical trainer and then I’m out faster than you can say “pronto”.

I keep it low-impact and yes I know swimming is also very good for pregnant women but I really cannot be bothered with all the extra hassle of going to a pool when I have gym facilities where I stay. None of that fancy membership stuff for me, thanks. So far, I’ve been managing two to three times a week, which – coupled with my vastly-improved eating habits – makes me just about the healthiest I’ve been in a long while. Now to keep this up for the next three months. And beyond.

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Posted in: Pregnancy.

Five Strangers play Rama V

Dec 17th, 2009
by soph.
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Y and G with their band Five Strangers during their (first ever) gig at Thai restaurant Rama V on Tuesday night. Unfortunately this was the best photo I managed because I didn’t want to move from my seat and I didn’t want to use my flash (read: all the other photos had at least one blurry figure) so you can’t see Marcus, who is on bass, and Shu, who is an absolute genius on keyboards. Jennie did an amazing job on vocals and the guys absolutely rocked! I’ll try to put up some videos if I can. Among the songs on their setlist were ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Perfectly Lonely’, ‘God Bless the Child’, ‘Fever’ and ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’. I stayed up till 2am and was so sleepy the next day but I had a brill time and it was totally worth it.

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Posted in: Movies Music TV.

Thinking about 2010

Dec 15th, 2009
by soph.
2 comments

Ever since I received a 2010 diary at an event earlier this month, I’ve been rather excited about the new year. It’s become a newly-acquired habit of mine to think about/write down each December what I want to focus on in the new year ahead so I’ve been giving 2010 some thought. It could just be hindsight speaking but I’ve found it really sets the tone for the coming months when I do that.

For instance, 2008 was my year of travelling. I wanted to travel as much as I could and just enjoy life with Y. We ended up making trips to Tioman, Phuket, Singapore, London, Paris and Rome, and I even clocked a trip for work to Mulu, Sarawak. At the end of 2008, I decided I’d had enough of playing hard for a while and declared 2009 my year of challenges. I wanted to push myself in terms of my writing, thinking, personal growth etc. As it turned out, this was also the year Y and I had our worst ever fight and the year we discovered I was (and still am) pregnant with our first child.

So 2010 is going to be my year of many changes. Our baby is due on 1 April (yes, really) and I’m preparing myself physically, mentally and emotionally for life never to be the same again. Ever. I expect that by the time we settle down to this whole new chapter it will be 2011 and I’ll have forgotten what it feels like to sleep past 7am and watch DVDs for hours on end, but I’m also expecting changes to take place in terms of my work and my writing. And whatever else the year may bring.

Lots of people ask me if I’m excited about having a baby. To be honest, the excitement is only just beginning to creep in. The first few months, everything still seemed so far away. But time, as has become its slightly annoying habit, has simply flown by and suddenly we find ourselves in December, 24 weeks pregnant and with a due date that’s going to be upon us before we realise it. Oh boy.

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Posted in: Daily Events.

24 Weeks: Everybody wants to know the sex of our baby

Dec 11th, 2009
by soph.
2 comments

Now that I’m obviously pregnant, the question everybody wants to know is: are we having a boy or a girl? Someone once joked that I should wear a sign. I briefly considered making one. It would say something like:

I am ____ months pregnant.
I am having a girl/boy/don’t know.

But I got too lazy. I might as well get the suspense out of the way; we don’t know if we’re having a boy or a girl. There. Some of you can stop reading now.

Hubby has been pretty adamant from the beginning: he wants it to be a surprise. He reckons it might be a boy – he says he dreamed about our son once (he had single eyelids and he was really cute) – but he doesn’t want to find out for sure.

Me? I was pretty game about keeping it a secret for the first four months and then curiosity got the better of me. Partly because I’m impatient like that, partly because I’m pretty sure the baby is getting confused by all the different names we keep calling it, partly because I want to know if hubby is right.

So at my last checkup, I decided I would do it. I would find out the sex of our baby and keep it a secret from hubby. I told the doctor I wanted to find out but that hubby didn’t want to know. She did the ultrasound and then she asked him to leave the room so she could tell me. And then, would you believe it, she tried to dissuade me! She said it’s much more exciting to find out when you deliver so I should wait.

I paused ever so briefly and decided, no, I was too curious. I had gone prepared to find out and I will. So she admitted that… she actually couldn’t see the sex yet! Our baby’s legs were squeezed so tightly together during the ultrasound that she couldn’t get a good view. I know that for a fact because I watched her try. And try. And try.

Well, as you can imagine, hubby was pretty chuffed. He’s taken it as a sign that the baby listens to him because apparently, he (or she) knew that daddy didn’t want to find out. I’ve taken it as a sign that our baby’s a cheeky little thing. Just like his (or her) father.

So here we are. 24 weeks and counting and we don’t know the sex of our baby. After the non-event that was my last doctor’s visit, I’ve changed my mind again. Maybe I will keep it a surprise after all. We’ve gone more than five months without knowing, what’s another few more? Plus, I’m thinking it’ll be good motivation for me come time to deliver. It’ll be like an extra reward, an even brighter light at the end of the tunnel. We’ll see.

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Posted in: Pregnancy.

When they just won’t stop kicking your seat…

Dec 5th, 2009
by soph.
7 comments

You probably know the feeling: you’re watching a movie in a cinema when all of a sudden, there’s a rude thump on the back of your seat. You ignore it – perhaps your fellow moviegoer accidentally kicked your seat stretching their legs. Then it happens again. You ignore it still. And again. And again. By the time you reach the fifth (hard) nudge you are irritated. The next one leaves you simmering and you begin plotting your please-stop-kicking-my-seat speech in your head.

Okay, maybe you don’t do that last part. I do. But I’ve never actually told someone off for kicking my seat. If I’m really annoyed I turn around to see who the culprit is and usually that stops them. But sometimes it doesn’t, at least not immediately. Like when I watched New Moon.

I couldn’t understand why the person behind me kept kicking my seat. I was in GSC Signature which meant there was plenty of leg room. You could have stood comfortably in the space between my knees and the seat in front of me! It happened at least a half dozen times before I turned around. But the back of the seat was too high for me to see the culprit, let alone chastise her. Yes, it turned out to be a her.

She must have noticed me though, because after I’d turned around twice, she finally stopped. Just when I’d decided that if she did it one more time… At the end of the movie, I got up to see this girl who was lying practically horizontal on her seat, snuggling under a blanket with her boyfriend. The lights were on, the credits were rolling and the two of them were still giggling at each other under their blanket. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have taken a picture. Or would that be illegal?

My sister and I seem to attract kickers. She had one that day too. During a press screening a couple of weeks back, I ended up in front of this 40-ish man who was, you guessed it, a kicker. And once, my sister and I actually had a guy stick his entire foot through the gap between our seats so it was on our armrest. Unbelievable.

Following this most recent episode, I’ve decided to stop tolerating rude, inconsiderate people like these and speak up the next time. Knowing my luck, I’ll get the opportunity sooner rather than later. What do you do when someone keeps kicking the back of your seat?

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Posted in: Movies Music TV.

Movie Review: New Moon

Dec 2nd, 2009
by soph.
4 comments

Being neither Team Edward nor Team Jacob (that is what they call them, yes?), I actually didn’t plan on watching this. I saw Twilight but that was on DVD and way after all the initial hype had come and gone. I remember thinking how amazing it was that such a mediocre film could incite such mania and decided the books on which the franchise is based must be very good. Never read those either.

Then sister no. 1 rings me up the very week New Moon is released and as it turns out, not only is she a huge Team Edward supporter (actually, now that I think about it, she is; I’d simply forgotten), she’s also inviting sister no.2 and myself to join her in her little swoon-fest – her treat. Of course I said yes.

Well, I must say Robert Pattinson is extraordinarily pretty as Edward Cullen, even if I found it ironic how the immortal is the one going around looking deathly pale, but it was rather difficult to appreciate him fully when I kept rolling my eyes every time he spoke. He had probably the cheesiest lines in recent cinematic memory, and actually, to say he “spoke” is a little overstating it. Murmured is more like it.

If not for one little fight scene and one not-so-little topless scene, Edward would have spent practically the entire film standing around mumbling bad lines. Oh there was one running-in-slow-motion-through-the-woods-with-Bella scene but all that did really was conjure flashbacks of that Bollywood Anakin-rolling-down-the-hill-with-Padme scene in Star Wars Episode II. Ugh. Thanks for that.

Speaking of Bella Swan, while I thought she looked better than I remembered, every Twilight fan I’ve encountered so far seems to feel either one of three things about her: a) she’s annoying; b) she’s a loser; c) all of the above. Was that supposed to happen?

I guess that doesn’t really matter since most of the audience was there to either drool over Edward or swoon at Jacob Black a.k.a. Taylor Lautner’s newly-acquired abs anyway. In a painfully draggy, largely unmemorable film, those two hog the spotlight by default, simply – and sadly – because there’s nothing much else worth talking about.

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Posted in: Movies Music TV.